"For everything there is a season..." There are seasons in our lives that can only be viewed from the lens of retirement.

Friday, January 2, 2009

Proverbs 1:1-7

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

For learning about wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight, for gaining instruction in wise dealing, righteousness, justice, and equity; to teach shrewdness to the simple, knowledge and prudence to the young-- Let the wise also hear and gain in learning, and the discerning acquire skill, to understand a proverb and a figure, the words of the wise and their riddles.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Comments: This is a good reading for the first day back after the New Year. Wisdom was what a righteous person was supposed to court in the time after the Exile. We don’t talk about wisdom that much these days—a pity. We need it so much. Wisdom was not just the accumulation of facts. It is much more. Ultimately it is about relationships. Knowledge serves relationships. And ultimately faith is about THE relationship, the bond between God and humanity in Jesus Christ.

Is wisdom something that we can attain, or is it graced? Wisdom is that which comes from the interaction between God and the human, so it is both. I know I have to prepare myself by being knowledgeable about people, events and things. That is part of leadership. But once I have that knowledge I have to use it wisely. That can only come with the direction of the Holy Spirit.

Loud Sounding Wisdom

There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest messages of the Incarnation.(Madeleine L'Engle)

"Do we really want a gracious God?Certainly we do -- for ourselves;but can we have a gracious Godif we don't believe that the same graceis given to those sinners outside our church doors,outside our faith, outside our boundaries of acceptability?" Pr. Brian Stroffregen

Blogger's Prayer

"Almighty God, you proclaim your truth in every age by many voices: Direct, in our time, we pray, those who speak where many listen and write what many read; that they may do their part in making the heart of this people wise, its mind sound, and its will righteous; to the honor of Jesus Christ our Lord."Book of Common Prayer

RevGalBlogPals

About Me

I am an unabashedly liberal Episcopal priest from a time when being a liberal was a "good" thing. If I am knee-jerk about anything it is about seeing that justice is done by those of us who call ourselves Christians or who are about serving Christ in the Church.